Today, the initial design of vehicles for the motoring public is undertaken in “Styling Studios”. There, conceptual 3D perspective renderings of a vehicle are made and then, after suitable approvals, brought to life by one of two methods. The first is the time honored and still prevalent construction of models, first in small scale, and then after more approvals full size. These are the famous “Clay Bodies” of automotive lore.
The second method which has enjoyed a lot of attention but has not proven satisfactory for the basic creation process is the use of computer based styling programs such as “ALIAS” to render images. The problems with this are several, among them a need for a high degree of training, and the artificial nature of expression it imposes on the designer, who is required to painstakingly “pull points” at given surface locations to effect change, an effort which is very constraining compared to the act of physical sculpture which can affect local areas in various desired ways simultaneously. In addition the prior art is often restricted to use with constant tangencies or continuous curvature. The designer can not interactively and amorphously created flowing 3D shapes the process is artificial and imposes such restraints that often “work arounds” are employed which in turn result in ugly vehicles if rushed through to completion without going through the clay body physical manifestation process. The famous “Aztek” of General Motors is thought to be an example.
The net result is that most stylists, at the conceptual stage of design to which this invention is addressed, don't use ALIAS or similar programs, and thus have not been able to effectively participate in the computer based techno-revolution engulfing the rest of society. While we are less familiar with the apparel fashion trade, it is likely that a some what similar situation holds true for designers thereof as well
By contrast, the invention allows the designer to interactively apply mathematical rules concerning slopes and shapes relating to geometric regions of various sizes around points along curves of his desired over all expression. In addition the rules may be applied automatically by program iteration under the direction of the designer or executive who wishes to see the effect of various approaches
There is no prior art we are aware of which pertains to methods and apparatus similar to the invention to aid the artistic expression needs of the stylist, artist, or sculptor. Certain aspects of the invention can be found however, in the fields of Perceptual User Interfaces (especially Gesture Recognition), Virtual reality, and Computer Aided Design. The closest known example in the patent or other art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,647 by Roberts et al. This patent discloses method of 3D design in a virtual reality type of system, in which the user may hold a sensor device in each hand and whose sensor position is tracked by a computer. But Roberts et al. does not teach several key issues including for example, the use of a physical object to reference ones hand or finger to in order to control the creation or change in a data base of the same or different object represented on a display. Nor does Roberts disclose the use of software having a sculpting capability free of the difficulties engendered in “pulling points” using polynomial based approaches
In addition, Roberts et al. utilizes sensors which require bulky cables to be used considerably limiting the designer, and which do not allow the designer to easily use natural finger or hand input, which is made possible with the non contact optical sensing of the instant invention. The sensing approach of Roberts et al further does not allow a user to describe in an easy hand motion a shape desired, as can the invention, a critical item in some automobile applications where the reference object is a full scale car or model thereof (e.g. “Clay body”).
Furthermore, neither Roberts et al. or any other known reference discloses a mechanism for use with such models, or full size object representations as does the invention, which also discloses a process which may be easily used by designers to create or modify the 3D representation in the computer or in the physical model. In addition Roberts et al. does not teach methods by which to modify existing object data bases, such as a CAD model of a competitors vehicle, and does not disclose mapping, filtering or many other aspects of the present invention which enable it to be extremely useful in design of automobiles.
In summation, the numerous input restrictions of the Roberts et al invention, its lack of teaching concerning utilization of existent data bases, and its reliance of on generating a totally virtual 3D graphic representation on the computer screen, restrict its use by today's practitioners of automotive design, who are accustomed to drawing 3D perspective sketches and creating or modifying physical 3D models of proposed designs. It is to this group, that the invention herein is addressed. In so doing large economic benefits result related to time to market and customer acceptance of the designs produced.